The best U.S. women’s luger from the last World Cup season will not go to the Olympics.
Julia Clukey, who ranked sixth in the 2012-13 World Cup standings, was beaten out for the final U.S. Olympic Team spot by 19-year-old U.S. junior champion Summer Britcher on Friday night, USA Luge confirmed.
U.S. Olympic qualification for luge is done via a tier system with three women making the team for Sochi.
Tier one is a top-five result on the World Cup tour this season. Erin Hamlin achieved that last week and booked her third Olympic berth. Kate Hansen also earned that Friday night in Park City, Utah, by finishing fourth.
Tier two is two top-nine results on the World Cup tour this season. Nobody other than Hamlin or Hansen had achieved that going into Park City’s race Friday night. Britcher had one eighth-place finish in Igls, Austria, three weeks ago. Clukey had zero top-nine finishes.
Britcher was in fourth place after the first of two runs Friday. Clukey was in eighth. If the standings held after the second and final run, Britcher would make the Olympic team over Clukey.
They didn’t hold, but Britcher still barely hung on. Britcher finished ninth for her second top-nine finish to achieve tier two status. Clukey finished sixth. If she had finished fifth, she would have earned tier one status and leaped past Britcher for an Olympic spot.
Hansen and Britcher both made their first Olympic teams.
@USA_LUGE athlete Summer Britcher makes the US @OLYMPICS team! Wow! Down to the last slider! @ Utah… http://t.co/rhv6YYsnZU
— Cynthea Hausman (@CyntheaH) December 14, 2013
@USA_LUGE athlete Summer Britcher makes the US @OLYMPICS team! Wow! Down to the last slider!
A post shared by Cynthea Wight Hausman (@cyntheah) on
The two U.S. Olympic doubles teams were also determined Friday. Matt Mortensen and Preston Griffall and Christian Niccum and Jayson Terdiman will go to Sochi.
Mortensen and Griffall earned a spot based on World Cup results. Niccum and Terdiman got in by winning a raceoff, The Associated Press confirmed.
Mortensen and Griffall have led U.S. doubles on the World Cup tour the last two seasons, ranking 10th last year and 10th this season going into Park City. They were ninth in Friday’s race.
It will be the first Olympic appearance for Mortensen, 28, and the second for Griffall, 29. Griffall took eighth in 2006 with Dan Joye.
Niccum and Terdiman were the top U.S. doubles team in 2011-12, ranking seventh on the World Cup circuit. They missed nearly all of last season after Niccum tore an Achilles tendon.
Niccum, 35, is going to his third Olympics. He placed 23rd in singles in 2006 and sixth with Joye in doubles in 2010. Terdiman is going to his first Olympics. Terdiman, 24, is an Olympic rookie.
The men’s team will include Chris Mazdzer. The other two U.S. spots will be determined after race results Saturday.
Park City World Cup
Women
1. Natalie Geisenberger (GER) 1:27.628
2. Anke Wischnewski (GER) 1:27.821
3. Alex Gough (CAN) 1:27.889
4. Kate Hansen (USA) 1:27.929
6. Julia Clukey (USA) 1:28.003
8. Erin Hamlin (USA) 1:28.014
9. Summer Britcher (USA) 1:28.023
Doubles
1. Tobias Wendl/Tobias Arlt (GER) 1:27.326
2. Andreas Lingerer/Wolfgang Lingerer (AUT) 1:27.488
3. Toni Eggert/Sascha Benecken (GER) 1:27.547
9. Matt Mortensen/Preston Griffall (USA) 1:28.080
11. Christian Niccum/Jayson Terdiman (USA) 1:28.153
U.S. breakthrough in skeleton World Cup
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NBC Sports and Peacock combine to air live coverage of the 2022-23 Alpine skiing season, including races on the World Cup, which starts this weekend.
Coverage begins with the traditional season-opening giant slaloms in Soelden, Austria, this Saturday and Sunday, streaming live on Peacock.
The first of four stops in the U.S. — the most in 26 years — is Thanksgiving weekend with a women’s giant slalom and slalom in Killington, Vermont. The men’s tour visits Beaver Creek, Colorado the following week, as well as Palisades Tahoe, California, and Aspen, Colorado after worlds in Courchevel and Meribel, France.
NBC Sports platforms will broadcast all four U.S. stops in the Alpine World Cup season, plus four more World Cups in other ski and snowboard disciplines. All Alpine World Cups in Austria will stream live on Peacock.
Mikaela Shiffrin, who last year won her fourth World Cup overall title, is the headliner. Shiffrin, who has 74 career World Cup race victories, will try to close the gap on the only Alpine skiers with more: Lindsey Vonn (82) and Ingemar Stenmark (86). Shiffrin won an average of five times per season the last three years and is hopeful of racing more often this season.
On the men’s side, 25-year-old Swiss Marco Odermatt returns after becoming the youngest man to win the overall, the biggest annual prize in ski racing, since Marcel Hirscher won the second of his record eight in a row in 2013.
2022-23 Alpine Skiing World Cup Broadcast Schedule
Schedule will be added to as the season progresses. All NBC Sports TV coverage also streams live on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app.
*Delayed broadcast.
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Olympic gold medalist Alex Hall headlines the U.S. Grand Prix at Copper Mountain, Colorado, airing on NBC Sports and Peacock this weekend.
For some skiers and snowboarders, it’s their first competition since the Olympics in February.
The first finals are Friday — men’s and women’s snowboard halfpipe and ski big air. The halfpipe landscape changed with Shaun White‘s retirement and Chloe Kim‘s break from competition this year.
Without them, two-time Olympic medalist Scotty James of Australia leads the men’s field that also includes U.S. Olympians Taylor Gold and Chase Josey. Japan’s Ayumu Hirano, the reigning Olympic champion, didn’t enter after competing in his national skateboarding championships last month.
Spain’s Queralt Castellet, who took silver behind Kim at the Olympics, is in Friday’s women’s final along with U.S. Olympian Maddie Mastro.
Friday’s men’s ski big air final includes two reigning Olympic champions: Hall, who won slopestyle gold in February, and Norwegian Birk Ruud, who prevailed in ski big air’s Olympic debut.
The women’s ski big air final includes Olympic silver and bronze medalists Tess Ledeux of France and Mathilde Gremaud of Switzerland. Eileen Gu, the Olympic gold medalist from China, did not enter Copper but has been training while balancing Stanford freshman classes.
U.S. Grand Prix Broadcast Schedule
*Delayed broadcasts. All coverage also streams on NBCSports.com/live and the NBC Sports app for subscribers.
Two-time Olympic medalist Alex Ferreira reached Saturday’s men’s ski halfpipe final, which will not include two-time Olympic champion David Wise, who was eliminated in qualifying. New Zealand’s Nico Porteous, the reigning Olympic gold medalist, is expected to be out until 2023 after offseason knee surgery.
The women’s ski halfpipe final, also Saturday, includes Olympic bronze medalist Rachael Karker of Canada, plus U.S. Olympians Brita Sigourney, Hanna Faulhaber and Carly Margulies. Gu won this event at the Olympics.
U.S. Olympian Chris Corning made Saturday’s snowboard big air final. None of the reigning Olympic big air medalists entered.
Julia Marino, who took slopestyle silver at the Olympics, is in the women’s big air final. Anna Gasser of Austria, who won the first two Olympic big air titles, did not enter Copper.
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